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The Grice Club

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The Grice Club

The club for all those whose members have no (other) club.

Is Grice the greatest philosopher that ever lived?

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Grice's Desert Island Discs

Grice's family was musical. His father, Grice describes in "Life and Opinions of Paul Grice" as a 'dreadful businessman', where 'dreadful' and 'busy' are metaphorical. "But a fine musician," he adds. Implicating (as per conventional implication, cfr. "She is a whore, but has good manners") that there is a contrast there.

Herbert Grice, for such was his name, played the fiddle -- and as a concertist. He taught the young Grice (H. Paul -- after whom this club was created) to play the piano-forte (we always add 'forte', because 'piano' means 'soft', and surely Grice used BOTH pedals, so he played the soft-hard).

It was a good idea of Mabel Fenton-Grice (Grice's mum) to have another son -- they called him Derek.

"The appearance of Derek on the scene meantthat, once he could speak, and stuff, helearned the 'cello and he would join Papaand me -- in our duets, which became,strictly, trios."

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Grice is reported in "The Cliftonian" to have played, to the audience's wonderment, Ravel's piano piece --.

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While at Oxford, and Berkeley, he kept a grand piano, and rather than "Principia Mathematica" he would more often than not consult Grove's "Music and Musicians".

He thought, rightly, that Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg were 'for children', implicating that we are NOT children, and that that means it's a bad thing (for a work to be 'for children' when you are not a child). This implicature ('the work is bad') is cancelled if it's CHILDREN speaking:

----- Tommy (aged 8). I went to the Albert Hall today.--------- Billy (aged 7). What did you see?----------Tommy: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, by Wagner.----------Billy: Did you like it.------Tommy: It is for children.

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The implicature, above, is that, "yes, I did like it".

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In any case, George Richardson, Grice's obituarist -- for the St. John's College records -- Richardson was a working-class Glasgwegian, originally -- adds that while Wagner was dismissed by Grice (e.g. Meistersinger for children), Grice liked Mahler -- "there was something in Mahler's [music] that 'spoke' directly to Grice", Richardson writes. His favourite (Grice's, not Richardson's) was Kathleen Ferrier's rendition of "The song of the earth".

There are a lot of implicatures in this piece of work, as per below.

The wiki informs us:

"Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth") is a large-scale work for two vocal soloists and orchestra by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. Laid out in six separate movements, each of them an independent song, the work is described on the title-page as Eine Symphonie für eine Tenor- und eine Alt- (oder Bariton-) Stimme und Orchester (nach Hans Bethges "Die chinesische Flöte") – ("A Symphony for Tenor and Alto (or Baritone) Voice and Orchestra (after Hans Bethge's 'The Chinese Flute')"). Bethge's text was published in the autumn of 1907. Mahler's use of 'Chinese' motifs in the music is unique in his output. Composed in the years 1908–1909, it followed the Eighth Symphony, but is not numbered as the Ninth, which is a different work. It lasts approximately 65 minutes in performance."

"Mahler conceived the work in 1908. This followed closely on the publication of Hans Bethge's volume of ancient Chinese poetry rendered into German, Die Chinesische Flöte ("The Chinese Flute"), based on several intermediate works (see Text). Mahler was very taken by the vision of earthly beauty and transience expressed in these verses[1] and chose seven (two of them used in the finale) to set to music. Mahler himself wrote: "I think it is probably the most personal composition I have created thus far."[2] Bruno Walter called it "the most personal utterance among Mahler's creations, and perhaps in all music."[3]"

"According to the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, in Chinese poetry Mahler found what he had formerly sought in the genre of German folk song: a mask or costume for the sense of rootlessness or "otherness" attending his identity as a Jew.[4] This theme, and its influence upon Mahler's tonality, has been further explored by John Sheinbaum.[5] It is also claimed that Mahler found in these poems an echo of his own increasing awareness of mortality.[6]"

"Mahler's experiences during the preceding summer (1907) are likened to the three hammer blows of his Sixth Symphony (written in 1903–1904)[7]. He was pushed to resign his post as Director of the Vienna Court Opera, through political intrigue partly involving anti-semitism. His eldest daughter Maria died from scarlet fever and diphtheria. In addition, Mahler himself was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. "With one stroke," he wrote to his friend Bruno Walter, "I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again like a newborn"[7]."

"Mahler had already included movements for voice and orchestra in his Second, Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies. However, Das Lied von der Erde is the first work giving a complete integration of song cycle and symphony. The form was afterwards imitated by other composers, notably by Shostakovich and Zemlinsky. This new form has been termed a "song-symphony",[8] a hybrid of the two forms that had occupied most of Mahler's creative life."

"Mahler was aware[9] of the so-called "curse of the Ninth", the fact that no composer since Beethoven had successfully completed more than nine symphonies before dying. He had already written eight symphonies before composing Das Lied von Der Erde, which he subtitled A Symphony for Tenor, Contralto and Large Orchestra, but left unnumbered as a symphony. His next (instrumental) symphony was numbered his Ninth. That was indeed the last he fully completed, for only the first movement of the Tenth had been orchestrated at the time of his death."

"The original public performance was given on 20 November 1911 in the Tonhalle in Munich, with Bruno Walter conducting. One of the earliest in London (possibly the first?) was in January 1913 at the Queen's Hall, under Henry Wood, where it was sung by Gervase Elwes and Doris Woodall: Wood thought it 'excessively modern but very beautiful'.[10]"

"Four of the Chinese poems used by Mahler ("Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde", "Von der Jugend", "Von der Schönheit" and "Der Trunkene im Frühling") are by Li Bai, the famous Tang dynasty wandering poet; the German text used by Mahler was derived from Hans Bethge's translations in his book Die chinesische Flöte (1907). These 'translations' were in fact loose imitations of translations in Hans Heilman's book Chinesische Lyrik (also 1907), which in turn drew upon two French translations from the Chinese: these were Poésies de l'époque des Thang by Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys,[11] and the Livre de Jade by Judith Gautier (an intimate friend of Richard Wagner's[12]).[13] "Der Einsame im Herbst" is by Chang Tsi and "Der Abschied" combines poems by Mong Hao-Ran and Wang Wei, plus several additional lines by Mahler himself."

"In 2005 a Cantonese version was prepared by Daniel Ng. The Cantonese dialect was chosen as it bears closest resemblance to the lost 8th Century Northern Mandarin dialect in which the original texts were written. The world premiere of this version was given by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on 22 July 2005 with mezzo Ning Liang and tenor Warren Mok under the direction of Lan Shui."

"Das Lied von der Erde is scored for a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, three flutes (the third doubling on second piccolo), three oboes (the third doubling on English horn), three clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, three bassoons (the third doubling on contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, bass tuba, percussion (timpani, bass drum, side drum (omitted in the revised score), cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tamtam, glockenspiel), celesta, two harps, mandolin, and strings. Mahler deploys these resources with great restraint: only in the first, fourth and sixth songs does the entire orchestra play at once, and in some places the texture almost resembles chamber music, with only a few instruments playing."

"Mahler's habit was to subject the orchestration of every new orchestral work to detailed revision over several years: though the musical material itself was hardly ever changed, the complex instrumental 'clothing' would be altered and refined in the light of experience gained in performance. In the case of Das Lied von der Erde, however, this process did not occur: the work's publication and first performance occurred posthumously."

"The scoring also calls for tenor and alto soloists. However, Mahler also includes the note that "if necessary, the alto part may be sung by a baritone". For the first few decades after the work's premiere, this option was little used. However, following the pioneering recordings of the work by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau under conductors Paul Kletzki and Leonard Bernstein, the use of baritones in this work has become increasingly common."

"Arnold Schoenberg began to arrange Das Lied von der Erde for chamber orchestra, reducing the orchestral forces to string and wind quintets, and calling for piano, celesta and harmonium to supplement the harmonic texture. Three percussionists are also employed. Schoenberg apparently never finished this in his lifetime, and the arrangement was completed by Rainer Riehn in 1980."

"The first movement, "The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery", continually returns to the refrain, Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod (literally, "Dark is life, is death"), which is pitched a semitone higher on each successive appearance. Like many drinking poems by Li Po, the original poem "Bei Ge Xing" (a pathetic song) (Chinese:悲歌行) mixes drunken exaltation with a deep sadness. The singer's part is notoriously demanding, since the tenor has to struggle at the top of his range against the power of the full orchestra. This gives the voice its shrill, piercing quality, and is consistent with Mahler's practice of pushing instruments, including vocal cords, to their limits. According to philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, the tenor should here create the impression of a "denatured voice in the Chinese (falsetto) style",[14] perhaps in the style of Peking opera."

""The wine in the golden cup calls us, but first let me sing you a song of sorrow which shall ring laughingly in your soul. When sorrow comes the gardens of the soul lie waste, joy and song fade and die: Dark is life, dark is death. Master of this house! Your cellar is full of golden wine! This lyre I shall call mine, for emptying the glass and sounding the lyre are things that go together. A full beaker of wine at the right time is worth more than all the riches of this world: Dark is life, dark is death. The sky is endlessly blue, and the earth will long remain, and bloom in Spring. But you, Man, how long will you remain? Not even a hundred years shall you enjoy all the mouldering trinkets of this earth! A wild, ghostly figure crouches in the moonlight on the tombs - it is an Ape! Listen, its howling cuts through the sweet scent of Life. Now, drink the wine! Now is the time, comrades! Empty your golden cups to the lees! Dark is life, dark is death.""

""The lonely one in Autumn" is a much softer, less turbulent movement. Marked 'somewhat dragging and exhausted', it begins with a repetitive shuffling in the strings, followed by solo wind instruments. The lyrics, which are based on a Tang Dynasty era poem by Chang Tsi,[15] lament the dying of flowers and the passing of beauty. The orchestration in this movement is sparse and chamber music-like, with long and independent contrapuntal lines."

""Autumn mists roll across the lake, as if a dust of Jade had been spread over the flowers, and their scent is gone. The withered lotus leaves will soon float on the lake waters. My heart is weary, and I come to this beautiful place of rest, for I need solace: I weep much in my loneliness. Autumn lasts too long in my heart: Sun of Love, will you never shine and dry away my bitter tears?""

"The third movement, "Of Youth" (for tenor), is the most obviously pentatonic and faux-Asian. The form is ternary, the third part being a greatly abbreviated revision of the first."A pavilion of green and white porcelain stands in the middle of a tiny pond. Like a tiger's back, a Jade bridge arches over to it. Inside the house beautifully-dressed friends drink and chat, and some write poetry: their silk sleeves slip back and their silk caps hang cheerfully over their necks. Everything is marvellously reflected in the still surface of the water. Everything stands on its head in the green and white pavilion. The bridge is like a half moon, the arch upturned. Beautifully dressed friends drink and chat.""

"The music of this movement, "Of Beauty", is mostly soft and legato, with a loud articulated section in the brass as the young men ride by. There is a long orchestral postlude to the sung passage."

""Maidens gather blossoms in their laps as they sit among the bushes of the river bank, and the sunlight reflects them in the water. Handsome youths ride past on horses among the willows, trampling the flowers. The loveliest of the maidens looks on the handsome young man with burning desire, her heart's excitement beseeching him through her gaze behind her mask of pride.""

"The scherzo of the work is represented by the fifth movement, "The drunken man in Spring". Like the first, it opens with a horn theme. In this movement Mahler uses extensive variety of tempo, which alters every few measures. The middle section features a solo violin and solo flute."If Life is a dream, why all this work and worry? I drink all day, till I can drink no more! Then I roll home and sleep. When I wake, a bird is singing, and I ask him if Spring has come. Yes! he replies, it came last night, and he sings and laughs, and I listen in wonder. And I fill my cup and drain it, and sing till the moon fills the night sky, and fall asleep again. What's the Spring to me? Just let me be drunk!""

"The final movement, "The Farewell", is nearly as long as the previous five movements combined. Its text is drawn from two different poems, both involving the theme of leave-taking."The sun sinks beyond the hills, evening descends into the valleys with its cooling shade. See, like a silver boat the moon sails up into the lake of the sky. I sense a soft wind blowing beyond the dark fir-trees. The brook sings melodiously through the dark. The flowers grow pale in the twilight. The earth breathes a deep draught of rest and sleep. All longing now will dream: tired people go homewards, so that they can learn forgotten joy and youth again in sleep! Birds sit motionless on their branches. The world is slumbering! It grows cool in the shade of my fir-trees. I stand and await my friend, I wait for him for our last farewell. O friend, I long to share the beauty of this evening at your side. Where do you linger? Long you leave me alone! I wander here and there with my lyre on soft grassy paths. O Beauty! O endless love-life-drunken world!"He dismounted from the horse and handed to him the drink of farewell. He asked him where he was bound and why it must be so. He spoke, and his voice was muffled: 'You, my friend, Fortune was not kind to me in this world! Where do I go? I am departing, I wander in the mountains. I am seeking rest for my lonely heart. I am making my way to my home, my abode. I shall never stray far away. My heart is still and awaits its moment.'"The beloved Earth blooms forth everywhere in Spring, and becomes green anew! Everywhere and endlessly blue shines the horizon! Endless... endless...""

"(The last lines were added by Mahler himself.) The singer repeats the final word like a mantra, accompanied by a sparse mix of strings, mandolin, harps, and celesta, until the music fades into silence, "etched on the air" as Benjamin Britten put it."

"The last movement is very difficult to conduct because of its cadenza writing for voice and solo instruments, which often flows over the barlines, "Ohne Rücksicht auf das Tempo" (Without regard for the tempo) according to Mahler's own direction. Bruno Walter related[cite this quote] that Mahler showed him the score of this movement and asked, "Do you know how to conduct this? Because I certainly don't." Mahler also hesitated to put the piece before the public because of its relentless negativity, unusual even for him. "Won't people go home and shoot themselves?" he asked."

1 comment:

Ravel entertains at times, yet ...a bit heavy on sucre at other times. He's a great but ... Debussy a bit more to my taste. I suspect Ravel penned piany musick he could not play but wrote it for virtuosos (that Argentinian broad plays it nice). A bit drippy, even creepy at times. As was Claude, but ...CD generally has a southern frenchman's...sense of light or something.

Scriabin another sophisticated pianist/composer. The late Scriabin...Immanentized the Eschaton as they formerly said. Scriabin's one of those composers where upon, after studying the score one says (even one who knows something about real music)..."maybe I'll return to...Bach..." on the schlock-o-meter I'd rate Count Scriabin as slightly less schlocky than his maestro Chopin or frenchies (tho' he...had mystic side that can get a bit wearying...Chopin's exquisite taste did not allow him to indulge in quasi-occult sounds)..but one of the greatest musicians like evah

You enjoy Mahler's muzak? I haven't listened to that much, but heavy deep stuff. Dark tea time of the soul, etc. Not really for me--even Beethoven's strum und drang sounds ...more authentic. I detest most of the Schoenberg atonal twisto school as well. Some of Bartok and Kodaly's sounds impress.....and the greatest hits of Igor S.